26 February 2013

In order to maximize our energy, and avoid wasting anyone's time, the rehearsal this Saturday will be run as follows:

Who: Only Woodwinds, Brass, and Percussion (such a party!) NO STRINGS (practice at home!)

Who Else: No section specialists.

When: 9:00 to 10:45 am (Notice the time change)

Where: Promontory School (Regular Place -- 1051 W 2700 S, Perry)

Why: So many string students will be on tour or playing for ASTA at USU.

Don't forget about the Gala Dinner. If you need tickets for the dinner, please let me know ASAP. Iron Gate Grill needs numbers by Wednesday (tomorrow). If you have silent auction items, shoot me an email so I can be prepared for what is coming; let me know what it is, who donated it, and what the list price is, or the value, so we can intelligently set the minimum bid and have a form prepared.

23 February 2013

Sam and I would like an accurate count of who will/will not be at rehearsal next week, March 2nd. We would like to make an informed decision on whether to have section specialists, or whether we should put the rehearsal into suspended animation... (That's supposed to be funny, btw). Please reply asap with a yes/no for next week's rehearsal.

Also, welcome to Blaine (trombone), Layton (cello), and Courtney (violin). We are so glad to have you! We hope you had fun this morning!

In my last email, I offered FREE tuition for this last concert, but please be aware that there have been others from the symphony board out recruiting, and their message has been $40 for the rest of the year, if possible; and if not, a donation of some sort; and if not that, we will find a way to cover the cost. Do not let this dissuade you from coming, but realize that there is a cost involved with running the program and we would love for you to help out, if at all possible. I apologize for the mis-communication; please contact me personally if you feel the need.

Thanks to Doris for the cookies, juice and oranges this morning! What a nice surprise!

And have a lovely day... Be safe in the snow! I think it might even be wet enough for a snow fort or snowman. :)

22 February 2013

It feels like a new year with a new start, even though it's only February! We have been out in the community inviting all who might like to attend LYS and play for the last concert of the year for FREE. (With the hope, of course, that they will come back this fall as full-fledged members of the orchestra). This is a recruiting effort that will hopefully yield great results, grow the program, and give us more exposure. Let's work together to make a greater difference in our communities!

Gala

The Gala is right around the corner, March 2 at 6:00 at the Senior Center in Brigham City. This has been a great fundraiser in the past, and we are looking forward to another successful year. We are still in need of donations for the silent auction as well as ticket sales. Currently we have only sold about 36 tickets. The goal is 160! Remember we have each been asked to sell 4 tickets. Please bring your ticket money or donations tomorrow; we need to get a final count for the caterers. Let me know if you have questions. Here is the link to the long version of instructions, etc, that I sent out previously.

Music

We will be turning in everything except Dvorak tomorrow -- so be sure you have all your music with you. This includes the 3 concertos (Bruch, Beethoven, Haydn), the Beethoven Symphony, Finlandia, Blue Tango, and whatever else you might have in your folder that shouldn't be there anymore! We will be handing out The Butterfly Lovers' Concerto (Nathan will be playing this), Les Miserables, and Autumn Leaves.

Rehearsal

Regular time tomorrow: 8:30 to 11:00 at Promontory School. Thank you to all the section specialists coming tomorrow! :)

Rite of Spring

The USU and Univ of Utah are combining for one final performance of Rite of Spring. This performance is tomorrow night in Logan. We encourage you to attend! It is one of those pieces that isn't often performed simply because of the massive number of musicians involved. Here is a link for tickets (just click on Rite of Spring). http://arts.usu.edu/

See you all bright and early on Saturday, February 23rd, 8:30 to 11:00 am, Promontory School. As always, I love it when you let me know if you are going to miss... reply to this email or text me @ 435.740.4335.

Please note the following section specialist schedule. If you play a small-section instrument, please let me know asap if you have a conflict on one of these days. Thanks!

08 February 2013

I've tried to keep this short. Please read through the whole thing, K?

Permission slips for Abravanel Hall

I have a list of people who have not yet handed in a permission slip. I will be sending an email to just those people. Please bring your slips tomorrow morning.

Comp tickets for your friends

We have two STUDENT comp tickets for each of you, so invite your friends. They will be handed out tomorrow morning, and you can give them to your friends before the concert. (They arrived last week, but because we let out earlier than planned, most people didn't get them.)

Times & schedule for this Saturday

We will be at the school with percussion equipment no later than 8:15am. Our rehearsal time on stage will be 8:30 to 11:00, and LYCO will be waiting in the wings for their time, which is 11:00 to 12:00. Call time for the concert is 4:30. We perform second, after LYCO. Concert order: Beethoven Piano Concerto, Bruch Violin Concerto, Blue Tango, Haydn Cello Concerto, Finlandia. Remember to be ready to play through the Beethoven 7th, second movement, so we will be prepared for Abravanel Hall on Monday as well.

Looking for a volunteer to coordinate comp tickets & thank you notes

With our new efforts at outreach, we are looking for a volunteer parent who can coordinate printing and distribution of our comp tickets to different schools and organizations. We are also looking for someone to send thank-yous to the silent auction donors.

The Meals on Wheels program is doing a fund raiser March 7, 2013, at 7:00 pm in the Box Elder High School auditorium. They are looking for 5-6 small classical numbers to add variety to their variety show. Here is the contact information for the person putting it together. They are looking for solos/duets/quartets. If you are serious about music, it's a great opportunity for you to perform! Call Iantha Folkman at 435.226.1452 or email her at idfolkman@yahoo.com if you are interested in performing.

No Rehearsal February 16th

I'm looking forward to a short break, and it makes sense to take one on the three-day weekend, especially after what is going to be a rather fun Saturday and Monday!

01 February 2013

The Gala Fundraising Dinner and Silent Auction is coming up! In fact, it is just four weeks away, March 2, 2013, 6pm, at the Brigham City Community Center.

Tickets

Tickets are $15 per plate. Each ticket includes a fabulous Iron Gate Grill meal, live musical entertainment, and admission to our fun silent auction. We have asked each student to sell four tickets, and if they don't have their ticket sales materials yet, they will very soon. There are incentives to sell -- chocolate for those who bring money each week, bigger chocolate for those who bring the most that week, and a $25 gift card for the student who brings in the most money (this is for ticket sales and cash donations combined). It's okay to offer tickets to people who might not come, but might donate. People tend to be very kind, and very supportive.

Silent Auction

In addition, we ask each family to secure at least one donation for the silent auction. This can be from a company or business where you have a connection, or you can just go butter up the manager of your favorite restaurant and hand him/her a letter! Handmade items are also greatly appreciated. It's great to see things at the silent auction that we buy anyway, like an oil change, but when we buy things from the silent auction, we are supporting a great cause at the same time!

I have attached the donation request letter in case you need more copies than the ones I already handed out (if you are reading this on the blog, contact me and I'll send you what you need). Feel free to add your name to the letter so I don't end up with phone calls from people I didn't know I'd handed it to! :) It also has the tax number on it, which people want for their taxes, since they write off their donations.

Collaboration

I have created a special spreadsheet that we can all access. HERE IT IS. CLICK HERE. It will help us not all bug the same businesses! I have had a lot of success just making myself spend a little time. Like tonight, I submitted several donation requests by just going online, finding instructions, and following them. You are all so creative. You will have more ideas than I have had. If you want to know what I did, check out THE LINK to the spreadsheet! It's there for you to put in your name and who you've contacted, and then return to it when you get an answer or an item, and add that to the records. It's also fun to check it out and see what has been donated so we can look forward to the fun of the silent auction!

Let's see if we can make a nice big pile of stuff for the auction by bringing donations to next week's concert! If you don't have your donation by next week, that's okay. You can bring it to any rehearsal, or drop it off at my house. It would be best if we have all donations by the Saturday before the gala. That's February 23. (Or the following Tuesday for LYCO students, February 26.)

Previous Donations

I've had a lot of questions about procuring these donations, so I am including a list below so you can see which businesses and people donated last year, or other years. This is not the collaborative list, however, so be sure to check it before we all bug the same people! I've included some notes on some items.

Here is a shout-out to all the support we've had over the years. We are so incredibly grateful! And we thank you, the families, for your gracious support as well! :)